springtime mittens

Well, yes, it’s supposed to be Spring tomorrow. Winter wants to go out with a bang in these parts, so after a weekend of sun, rain, sleet, thunder and hail, Monday brings snow. At least it’s cold enough I can wear my new mittens!

I’m pretty happy with these. I love the ’70s flower-power look and the orange/ivory combo. But after making the fiddleheads mittens, I wish these were lined. Those were so warm and cozy. I suppose I could line these, but I’m suffering from mitten fatigue now and it’s time to move onto other things until Fall.

I’ve got to say though, I was less than thrilled with this yarn. I used the same yarn (shibui sock) making the Clematis mittens last year and I had no problems with it then. This time, when I rolled the ivory into a ball, it was in 4 sections. !!! Unacceptable. !!! And besides those four little balls I now had, there were quite a few areas where the yarn splintered down to a very thin thread, which easily broke off. The orange (lily) was fine though. How anybody can roll that into a skein and think it’s sellable and usable, I don’t know. I should have just returned it…

Anyway, after that brief but intense snowstorm this morning, it looks like the sun is trying to come out. Welcome to Spring!

They look so bright…and if you lived here, would still be perfectly acceptable as it is snowing this morning! I don’t have a ton of experience with white yarn, but what I do have, I have found it to be thinner and more inconsistent than the same yarn that has been dyed. I’m not sure why that would be but others have noticed that as well. Which is annoying in itself, but especially for colorwork!